Chapter 3: Police Patrols and Broken Souls


Third Person POW:

I'm the monster…

The bunny wept against the black suit of the fox sitting in the cruiser beside her. She flinched when strong cold paws held her arms. The touch was foreign, almost alien yet it was not unpleasant. He wasn't hurting her. She looked up slowly through teary eyes and her heart froze between beats. Looking down at her wasn't the cold freak, the monster that ripped her friend's prosthetic arm off. Rather, looking down at her were eyes full of life and worry. If she focused on them, she could see certain lines and features that wouldn't pass as biological but nonetheless they were brimming with spirit and energy – complete opposites from what they were when she first saw them.

"Are all bunnies always so emotional or is it just you fluff?" The fox smirked fiendishly at the bunny officer who was clinging on to him. She gently pushed herself away from him and huffed.

"You don't have to be an asshole anymore you know." Nick frowned. "Your friend told us about… you." The cold paws held her tighter. It hurt now. His gaze was cold again.

"God damnit fluff… You were supposed to hate me!" He barked at her with fake aggression. The rabbit raised an eyebrow in confusion.

"Why would that do us any good? Do you WANT to have a partner that hates you Nick?" She asked baffled. Nick looked away, his gaze lowered.

"No. But I wanted a partner who would leave my ass behind without a second thought if it came down to it between me and an innocent." He let her go. "Fluff… The specs aren't what you think they are…" He clenched his jaw tightly, his artificial fangs almost cracking. "We are the bad guys."

Judy's mind ground to a screeching halt. "Wh-what? How are you the bad guys? You chase down criminals…" She waited for an explanation. After what seemed like an eternity, the bunny figured she wasn't going to get one. "Nick ple-"

"Let's go to Happytown. I'll show you."

Judy's POW:

"Let's go to Happytown. I'll show you." Was all the damn fox said before he went silent again. What the hell did I get pulled into? Nobody ever went to Happytown. We were ordered to avoid it. Strictly Specter territory. If you went there it meant handing in your badge the next day, if you made it out alive that is.

To say that Happytown is the bad neighborhood of the city is an understatement. The worst of the worst scum hide about there. And the Specters are presumed to rule over the territory with an iron fist. If you got in there and got back out alive – and stayed that way, it usually meant that the specs wanted something from you or that they deemed you useful. Crime lords, mafia families and a colorful assortment of other criminals made their home on Happytown. It was definitely a place to avoid.

I put the cruiser in gear and made my way towards the criminal district of the city. Nick stayed silent throughout the entire drive there. Once we got to the edge of Happytown, he signaled me to pull over.

"Best not to go in there while you're still in police uniform." Get out of the car fluff." He said with a solemn stare out of the window and made his way out as well. After I got out of the police cruiser myself, I made my way around it and stood by his side, strangely close to a dark alley yet not in Happytown itself just yet. "Stand here." I complied in silence, still waiting for the explanation I never got. The fox made his way into the dark alley, just inside of the shadows so that he effectively disappeared from my vision.

"This fluff… Is the line that separates us." I remained silent. "You stand out there in the light, fighting for the common good of the people." He laughed almost miserably. "While I stand in the shadows of Zootopia, fighting alongside those who wish to hurt the common good."

"What do you mean Nick?" I felt a strange sorrow inside me. Somehow I knew what was about to come would not be good at all.

"The world is a bad place fluff. Accept it. It'll never be free of crime and corruption. And where there's crime, there's going to be organized crime. And that's where the specs come in. The black market, the mafia and all of that… We regulate, manipulate and pull their strings from behind the scenes. We created the Ticks to keep track of all the scum of this place. When someone goes off on their own or does something they shouldn't, the specs are sent out to hunt them down." I felt my eyes water and my breath freeze in my chest.

"That's who we are, WHAT we are fluff. We're the hounds of the underworld, the only thing standing between your world and the bumps in the night. The Specters make sure the bad stuff stays where it's supposed to… Firmly in our grasp." I couldn't believe my own two ears. I was 'promoted' to a glorified bounty hunter. I didn't ask for this.

"I'm NOT going to be serving under some crime boss!" I felt tears streak down my cheeks and anger flare in the pit of my stomach. "I didn't ASK for this you know!" The fox stepped out of the shadows. He looked destroyed inside.

"None of us did fluff." My eyes widened for a moment before I managed to regain my composure and wipe the remaining tears away. "By tomorrow any evidence that you're still alive will be gone. You'll be proclaimed KIA and your parents and siblings if any will be notified of the disaster that took their loved one's life. Any contact with your former friends and family will be deemed as rogue and you will be ticked and h-hunted down…" He choked on the last words.

"So you're going to kill me if I don't play along is that it, fox?" I could barely hold myself back at this point. I spent my entire life working my ass off to get into the ZPD and try to make the world a better place. And now it's all going to be ripped away from me because some stupid fox couldn't keep his fucking paws off of me!

"Worse. You'll wish they killed you." W-wait, they? So it's not the specs that hunt you down? Before I could as much as think of asking him any of the question that were burning inside me, the fox started speaking again. "They'll track you down fluff. And they'll stick this on you."

He brought his right paw up to the collar of his black suit and loosened his tie, so that he could pull the material down. Underneath gleamed a silver ring, running around the base of his neck.

"They make you watch as they… take away any reason for you to disobey orders."

"Did you…" His eyes caught my gaze and held it for minutes on end. His shoulders drooped and ears lay flat against his head. They took everything from him.

Third Person POW:

The canine fixed his suit back up and grit out through clenched teeth: "So you do what they tell you to fluff. You give them a show they won't see through. And when they aren't looking, you do you damnest to unfuck what they fucked over." Blowing out a breath of frustration, the fox made his way to the silent rabbit, his eyes aimed at the ground beneath them. "You sacrifice the life of one, to save the lives of many. Just like Bogo gave you up, KNOWING what he was thrusting you into in hopes that you could do what we have been struggling for."

Judy reluctantly looked up at Nick, wringing her paws on her chest. "The chief… knew?" she asked in a voice so small, it almost got past the fox. Almost. He sighed and knelt down to eye level.

"He's the one who does most of the unfucking fluff. He gives us mammals which he thinks would help out the most. Bogo isn't controlled or monitored as much as we are and the bastard makes sure to use that to his advantage." Nick smirked at Judy.

"It's a give and take kind of relationship we got going on. Like I said fluff, the chief helps us out with recruits and in return, the specs handle all the major conflicts that would otherwise put the ZPD officers in danger." He stood back up and sat back in the cruiser. With the window still rolled down, he smirked at the bunny again. "The Specters are a big group fluff. Don't trust any of them. Well… Except for Foxtrot, we'll take care of our own."

Judy's POW:

In some strange way I thought he was telling the truth. He said they were the bad guys, but when no one else was looking they did more good than I've seen the ZPD do since I got stationed at Precinct 1. If the chief trusted me enough with the safety of the city to send me behind enemy lines, then who am I to doubt him. I'll change this world. If not from the inside, then I'll dig deep underground and start toppling the pillars of organized crime.

I'll become a Specter.

And I'm going to fix this world… I'll make it a better place.

After making my way back inside the car, I continued my daily patrol – this time it seemed the border of Happytown was my point of interest. Nick kept staring out of the passenger window and I saw him raise his paw to the silver band around his neck every once in a while. I coughed.

"What's that? Around your neck?" I wasn't sure he'd give me the answer. Hell I wasn't even sure if he acknowledged me at all. But he did. Nick just didn't show it.

"T.A.M.E. collar. Follow the rules or they flood your system with pain. Disobey enough times and they eventually stop turning it off." My mouth felt dry, like it was stuffed with cotton. If you didn't do what they said…

"Will I get one too?" I saw him flinch at my question. The fox sighed and returned to staring into the dreary abyss of the place Happytown had become. The weather was gloomy today.

"No fluff… Shit, I don't even know your name." Well that would've explained why he outright refrained from calling me anything else than fluff. Suppose the jerk could've at least remembered my name if he was going to ruin my life in the first place.

"It's Judy. Judy Hopps you jerk." I was sure he saw me scowl even though I wasn't looking directly at him.

"Well first off no you won't get one of these beauties unless you go rogue and second, why the hell am I a jerk?!" He half yelled at me.

"WHY?! Well how about ruining my life for starters? I can't ever see my family or my friends again!" He scoffed at me, REALLY scoffed. The kind of sound you make when your distaste for someone is beyond anything that it has ever been.

"Well Judy, at least your family is fucking alive okay?!" Oh right… Nice going Judy.

"Nick I'm sorry I didn't-" He cut me off before I could apologize.

"Just shut up and drive." We didn't speak anymore.

After a few hours of silent driving Nick told me to drop him off wherever and that I should go home and get the stuff that I wanted to keep.

I didn't sleep that night. The following morning I made sure to pack the few meager things I came to Zootopia with and a few extra shirts that I had bought over the course of my stay. I wasn't poor by any standards, the money I made at the ZPD, I usually spent on food, bills and a few clothes if I needed any. The rest I sent back to the farm. My family wasn't doing so well lately. And after today they probably wouldn't be doing well for a long while.

My alarm clock beeped at 5:30 and I got dressed in civilian clothing. The fox said it wouldn't do me any good if the only bunny cop was spotted alive in uniform after being proclaimed KIA.

I made sure to pocked my badge anyway.

The weather outside was as bleak as my mood. The morning was going to be dark and gray and probably rainy. I looked through the window of my little room one last time. The streets were quiet and dark, empty too. Well except for him standing on the other side of the street, looking at me.

Mister Nick Wilde, Specter and fox. This day was going to be glorious.

*click*

To be continued…